Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism

2. Text, Image, and Transformation in the History of the Shuilu fahui, the Buddhist Rite for Deliverance of Creatures of Water and Land

writing at the end of the eleventh century, the Chan master Changlu Zongze (d. 1107?) observed: Professing the desire to ensure peace and harmony, if one does not hold a shuilu [rite] one is considered to be without virtue. In the service of one’s superiors and elders, if one does not sponsor a shuilu one is considered unfilial. If in giving benevolent assistance to the needy and the young one does not hold a shuilu one is considered unloving. Hence people with wealth and means will sponsor the rite on their own, while the impoverished will pool their resources and sponsor it collectively. [Tales of] miraculous response connected with these performances are too numerous to relate.1 In 1934, nearly a millennium later, the Buddhist cleric Fafang (1904–1951) described a similar state of a¤airs: In every temple of China, although the plaque in the main gate says it is suchand -such Chan temple, once inside the meditation hall one realizes that it has been changed into a hall for chanting sutras and reciting confessionals, or that it has become an inner altar for the shuilu. The clerics living there may call themselves Chan monks, but they are really just monks who specialize in rites of penance.2 Along with being a very popular rite, the shuilu fahui (rite for deliverance of creatures of water and land) is arguably the most spectacular liturgy in the Chinese Buddhist repertoire. From at least the beginning of the Southern Song, larger monasteries made the shuilu available to their clientele through permanent chapels known as shuilu halls (shuilu tang or yuan). These structures complemented a well-established tradition of ad hoc (linshi) performance that also allowed the rite to be exported to donors’ homes, community shrines, and other sites beyond the monastery grounds. Wherever the shuilu was held, it involved an enormous outlay 30 2 Text, Image, and Transformation in the History of the Shuilu fahui, the Buddhist Rite for Deliverance of Creatures of Water and Land Daniel B. Stevenson of resources. A seemingly endless stream of clerical o◊ciants, acolytes, and subsidiary sta¤ tended its ritual protocols and altars. Along with the usual equipment for ritual o¤ering (e.g., altar accoutrements, ritual garments), each performance called for the production of three to four thousand handcrafted paper placards, writs and petitions, papier-mâché e◊gies, and other paraphernalia, most of which were consumed in the course of the rite itself. Special foods had to be supplied as o¤erings to the deities, while massive quantities of vegetarian fare were needed for the daily feasting (zhai) of donors, monastic o◊ciants, and sundry hangers-on. Meanwhile, the confines of the inner altar were themselves covered, wall to wall, with lavish iconographic scrolls (or wall paintings in the case of dedicated shuilu halls). From the initial setting up of the ritual sanctuary to the concluding dismissal of the deities, a shuilu typically required seven days to complete. The protocols involved complex layers of activity that took place concurrently at two di¤erent sites, the inner altar (neitan), which is divided into an upper hall (shangtang) and lower hall (xiatang), and the outer altar (waitan). The core procedure of the shuilu is performed at the inner altar. It begins with the ritual securing of the inner altar, after which the enlightened (C. sheng; S. ârya) assembly of buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, and divine guardians of the Three Jewels is summoned into its upper hall and feted with the usual Buddhist o¤erings (gongyang) and supplications. Having assembled the enlightened hosts, the shuilu o◊ciants move to the courtyard outside the inner altar. There they dispatch papier-mâché emissaries (shi) and “writs of amnesty” to gain the temporary release of creatures under the supervision of the divine ministries of the heavens, atmosphere, earth, and underworld. This gesture serves as a segue to the most crucial phase of the rite: the sequence during which the unenlightened beings (C. fan; S. p∑thagjana) of the lower hall are assembled, converted , and feted at the inner altar.The composition of this assembly corresponds in principle to the traditional Buddhist six abodes of samsara. However, their ranks are expanded to accommodate a variety of indigenous cosmological categories, including gods (shen) of the Chinese celestial and terrestrial bureaucracies, Daoist immortals, Confucian worthies, emperors and o◊cials, hungry ghosts (C. egui; S. preta), solitary souls (guhun), ancestors, the Ten Kings, and liminoids (wanghun) of purgatory. Summoned to the...